Dr. Ernst Heinkel was born on January 24, 1888, and died on January 30, 1958. He was a German aircraft designer and manufacturer. He also held the position of Wehrwirtschaftsführer in Nazi Germany and was a member of the Nazi Party. His company, Heinkel Flugzeugwerke, created the Heinkel He 178, which was the first aircraft in the world to be powered by a turbojet engine. The company also produced the Heinkel He 176, the first aircraft to use rocket power.
Early life
Heinkel was born in Grunbach, which is now part of Remshalden. As a young man, he became an apprentice machinist at a factory. He studied at the Technical Academy of Stuttgart, where he became interested in aviation because he was fascinated by Zeppelins. In 1909, he attended an international airshow in Frankfurt am Main. He decided that flight would be the future of transportation. The next year, he built his first aircraft using plans by Henri Farman. In 1911, he crashed his first aircraft and suffered serious injuries.
Albatros Flugzeugwerke
After this, he began working for Luft-Verkehrs Gesellschaft (LVG), a company building Farman aircraft. Later, he moved to Albatros. After World War I, Heinkel said he designed the Albatros B.II, an aircraft used for spying and training pilots during the early part of the war. However, the actual main designer was Robert Thelen. These aircraft were used by the Austro-Hungarian army and Germany's Kaiserliche Marine during the war. After leaving Albatros, Heinkel created several land planes and seaplanes for the Hansa-Brandenburg company starting in 1914.
Heinkel-Flugzeugwerke
In 1921, Heinkel became the head designer of Caspar-Werke, a company that had recently been re-established. He left the company shortly after a disagreement about the ownership of a design. In 1922, he founded the Heinkel-Flugzeugwerke company in Warnemünde. Because the Treaty of Versailles limited German aircraft production, Heinkel sought contracts outside Germany. Some of his seaplane designs were built under license in Sweden, and he worked on seaplanes launched by catapults for the Imperial Japanese Navy. He also installed a similar catapult on the ocean liner Bremen to launch mail planes.
Between 1921 and 1924, the Japanese government placed multiple orders with Heinkel’s company. Japan helped him avoid the restrictions of the Versailles Treaty, which banned military aircraft production in Germany, by informing Heinkel of inspections by Allied commissions in advance. Japan was part of the inspection commission. Heinkel hid his aircraft in dunes behind his factory, and they were never found during inspections. He wrote in his memoirs that his company’s relationship with Japan in the 1920s led to many years of cooperation.
1933–1945
After Adolf Hitler gained power, aircraft designs created by Heinkel's company became an important part of the German air force, the Luftwaffe, as it grew stronger before World War II. These designs included the Heinkel He 59, the Heinkel He 115, and the Heinkel He 111. For his work helping Germany prepare for war, the German government named Heinkel a Wehrwirtschaftführer, which means "defense industry leader."
Heinkel was interested in fast flying and wanted to explore new ways to power airplanes. He gave aircraft to Wernher von Braun, who studied rocket engines for planes, and supported Hans von Ohain's research on turbojet engines. This work led to the flight of the Heinkel He 178, the first airplane to fly using only a turbojet engine, on August 27, 1939.
Heinkel had criticized Hitler's government in the past. In 1933, he was forced to fire Jewish designers and workers from his company. Despite this, he was a member of the Nazi Party and received the German National Prize for Art and Science in 1938, a rare honor from the German government. Starting in 1941, Heinkel's company used forced labor from Jewish workers.
In 1943, the German military ordered Heinkel to change his company's name to "Ernst Heinkel AG." He kept two-thirds of the company's ownership but became the head of the supervisory board. He moved to Vienna and opened a new design office and corporate buildings in the Schwechat area. He also built factories in Zwölfaxing and Floridsdorf, called the Heinkel-Sud complex. The original Rostock-"Marienehe" plant, now part of Rostock-Schmarl, became the Heinkel-Nord facility. At the Heinkel-Sud offices, Dr. Heinkel worked on the Heinkel He 274, a four-engine bomber designed for high altitudes. This was one of three proposals to replace the failed Heinkel He 177 A bomber. He also worked on an unbuilt Amerikabomber design. Production of the firm's Spatz single-seat jet fighter ended with the war's conclusion.
Post-war
In July 1945, Heinkel was captured by American soldiers and held for possible legal action as part of Operation Dustbin. He was temporarily held at Kransberg Castle, near Frankfurt.
After World War II, the Allies banned Germany from building airplanes. Heinkel used his company's factories to produce personal vehicles instead. In 1953, he started making the Tourist scooter. In 1954, he began producing the Perle moped. In 1956, he introduced the Heinkel Kabine bubble car. Production of the bubble car and moped stopped after the ban on airplane manufacturing was lifted, but scooter production continued until 1965. In 1959, Heinkel’s company was sued by Edmund Bartl for using forced labor during World War II. However, the German Supreme Court dismissed the case because it was filed too late and ordered Bartl to pay court costs and attorney fees.
Death and legacy
Heinkel died in 1958 in Stuttgart. His autobiography, Stürmisches Leben, was published in 1956 and translated into English as He1000 in its British edition and Stormy Life: Memoirs of a Pioneer of the Air Age in its US edition.
In 1981, Heinkel was honored by being inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame at the San Diego Air & Space Museum.